Till for free thought remains no sunny knoll. Autocracy, that statesmen duped adore, While declamation's harmless thunders roll O'er Germany, secures her prey, and more Craves, force and fraud despise the lib'ral jurist's lore.
The ornaments of life Columbia wants,
And decorative graces, but she rears
A fabric, though no splendours there enchant
Idolaters of rank, that man reveres ;
The aspect of Utility it wears.
Its ever-crescent strength to contemplate
Patriots rejoice, through vista long of years;
And art will bring refinement, to create
Love of the beautiful in minds ambitious hopes elate.
See! a young nation, whose united will
One spirit animates, one heart impels,
While slumber ancient dynasties, or ill
Conceiving domineer till man rebels,
In works ensuring future wealth excels.
Authors, an immaterial class, are prized
No more than monks were in their cluster'd cells;
But schemes, old states dream not, are realized,
By speculation's far-discerning mind devised.
A new earth's verdurous magnificence
Seems from a recent deluge to emerge:
Lakes with a thousand islands gemm'd; immense
Forests, and far along the horizon's verge
Blue mountains cresting like the ocean's surge;
Earth-shaking rush of falls, and roar of flood,
And fell oft seam'd by the tornado's scourge;
These bards have sung, in sad or lively mood,
But their auxiliar charms remain yet to be woo'd.
Yet o'er America must nature grand
Her imagery rare hereafter show
To the clear-sighted poet; in that land
She may have riches Wordsworths do not know;
Her Helicons, whence streams untasted flow.
And illustrations beautiful to draw
From new phenomena, above, below,
Genius will thirst, with rapture and with awe Beholding sights that hitherto unheeding craftsmen saw.
Sculpture need not ideal forms contrive,
Nor painting borrow from the Italian clime
Its flush of beauty; loveliest models live
To wake the artist's genius, in spring-time
"La constitution des Etats-Unis ressemble à ces belles créations de l'industrie humaine qui comblent de gloire et de bien ceux qui les inventent, mais qui restent stériles en d'autres mains.-TocQUEVILLE, de la Démocratie en Amérique."
Two mighty powers for mastery contend,
Like principles opposed of good and ill;
Sworn foe to freedom and determined friend :
One would on earth pour forth of light a flood,
The other would extinguish it in blood.
Russia, America-to these perchance
Old states hereafter may be forced to bend.
Have free-men been triumphant to advance
The cause of autocrats? Why bled insulting France?
For years o'er Europe, in advancement slow,
Yet still enlarging, has a shadow stole;
Portentous shadow! vaster will it grow,
O'erspreading of our ancient world the whole,
Till for free thought remains no sunny knoll. Autocracy, that statesmen duped adore, While declamation's harmless thunders roll O'er Germany, secures her prey, and more Craves, force and fraud despise the lib'ral jurist's lore.
The ornaments of life Columbia wants,
And decorative graces, but she rears
A fabric, though no splendours there enchant
Idolaters of rank, that man reveres ;
The aspect of Utility it wears.
Its ever-crescent strength to contemplate
Patriots rejoice, through vista long of years;
And art will bring refinement, to create
Love of the beautiful in minds ambitious hopes elate.
See! a young nation, whose united will
One spirit animates, one heart impels,
While slumber ancient dynasties, or ill
Conceiving domineer till man rebels,
In works ensuring future wealth excels.
Authors, an immaterial class, are prized
No more than monks were in their cluster'd cells;
But schemes, old states dream not, are realized,
By speculation's far-discerning mind devised.
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